Vintage Minor Register

A very Good Morning to all !!

Networking with fellow enthusiasts last night , I was told about the possibility of a Pre war Morris Minor saloon,
surfacing in Jaipur , india , 2 Miles from my house and 100 meters away from my Dad's old work place.

This morning after dropping my Son at school, I straight away went to the location and found her.
Could'nt believe my eyes, the car looks fairly complete , There was no one around so I took the liberty of taking pictures.

The history is unclear, and will be known in the days to come, I am on trail and will find out who owns it and
whether it is for sale or not, I hope I get lucky and hope then this thread could be moved to " Members Minors " section

I will let the pictures talk, and sorry for the quality as it was again a cell phone camera.

The Dumb iron showing the Chassis no. 30672 , VMR data suggests the car left the factory aprox end of 1930 or early '31 . More about her in days to come, stay glued !!

Cheers
Kartik

Edited : changed the year to 1933, thanks Ian !!

Good morning Kartik!

What a super find - and so close to home!

I think you were looking at the OHC Genome. This is a SV car, and the SV Genome would suggest a production date of around 18th April 1933.

The driver's side door has dropped a bit (but the opassenger door looks good) and it has various mods which are usual with cars thast have lived in foreign lands for long periods - like the lamps and bumpers, but it most cetainly looks like it could be saved and restored as a saloon. The overall condition of the steel bosy shell and wings looks super!

I do hope you can liberate it! I will add it to the chassis register!

Ian,
Thanks for the info on the correct year, I edited the post,
Amazing part about this find is the closeness to home,
Just hope that some day I can get my hands on her.

Cheers
Kartik

Kartik,

Well it doesn't look like anyone has done anything with it in recent years. Presumably you pulled it out of a shed to get the pics, and it isn't permanently parked outside? Were the tyres flat? It would be reveraling to get some under-bonnet photos to assess the general condition of the engine room!

Ian

Ian,
It has been parked on the road for around 4 months, by someone who either bought it or has taken from some one
for restorations.

some pictures I took this morning

Good morning Kartik,

Great photos! This looks in similar condition to your tourer when you got that, so I'm sure it wouldn't take you long to get it sorted! Looking past the host of superficial mods., it looks basically very sound from what I can see, although you can never tell about the ash frame from photos like these, except for dropped doors, etc. of course.

SV spares are easier to find and cheaper than OHC spares too.

It has obviously had a long and busy life, but looks like it has been stored for a long time in good, dry conditions, so I'm hopeful that the ash frame will be basically sound/repairable.

is that a garage/workshop its parked outside?

Ian,
Its not for sale right now and is parked outside a Garage, I met with the owners family today
and it was a runner ten years ago.

It is in amazing condition for its age.
I will update more soon, the first job is to convince the owner to get it back from the guy,
who is planning to restore it, he for sure will destroy it.

cheers
Kartik

Kartik,

Agreed. If there is anything I can do in terms of sending the owners info on the car, technical or historical data, etc., please let me know. In the meantime, it is lucky it is so local to you so you can keep a close eye on developments.

Have the owners seen your Minor yet?

Good luck!

Ian

Ian,
I spoke by phone with the owners son last night, and will be meeting him in the evening.
lets see where it goes , I will offer them all the help if they are receptive, but after a point,
I cannot do a thing, after all its their car !!

But I am hoping for the best !!

Cheers
Kartik

Just back after meeting the owners son.

The first question he asked me was "is this your business ? " dealing in these cars,
I explained my passion for vintage cars and supplemented evidence with printout of the forums,
Restoration pictures , couple of Vmr magazines with my cars pictures and stuff.

Told him about the clubs and what we do, once he was convinced I told him details about the guy and the pending fraud cases against him, His modus operandi etc,

He told me that the family owns the car from 1972 and it was a runner 10 years back, he and his other brother want to sell
It and have no interest in it, but the old man wants to keep it, my suggestion was to keep the car in the family and in case they want to restore it then , they shouldn't go with this con man.

Apparently the con guy wanted to buy the car and when he realised the old man won't sell it, he told him that the car would be worth a lot of money after restoring and he would restore it for him for aprox 1000 pounds and he would be able to the sell it for 10000 , apart from the 1000 pounds for restoration he would also take a 10 percent share in the sale proceeds. This is how the car reached him.

This makes one thing absolutely clear, the sons want to sell it as it is, but the old man thinks its of great value , so wants to restore it and sell it for huge gains. The bottom line is that sooner or later this car would be for sale.

The owner is going to be in Jaipur after a week and his son would call me to meet him. Meanwhile it's possible that they might try to get the car back from this guy, depends on how convinced they are with my talk.

So now I shall wait for a week and let's see where this leads.

Cheers
Kartik

Edited to add : my suggestion to keep the car in the family in all honesty was just to convince that I am not after the car,
In case this guy joins the forum some day, I will have to edit my post , but being honest here !!

Kartik,

Thanks for the full report and hard work to save this car. A lot of us have walked similar paths with similar cars before - it sometimes ends well, other times not so well. It always hampers things when owners think their modest car in poor condition is worth a small fortune.

May I offer you the very best of luck in this case. It may take some time to resolve, but I know you won't give up!

Ian

Edited to add - it is an inescapable fact that Minors cost more to restore than they are worth - even if the purchase price is very low. Even with M Types, many have tried, but if the job is done properly, and with the cost of genuine M parts, this rule applies to M Types too. Someone told me years ago that he ebuilt Bugattis because an ash frame for a Bug cost no more to make than an ash frame for a Morris Minor ...